Musing about why women are restricted in church leadership, Stone said that God has always required a “token of his ownership and lordship” in exchange for blessing.
“It just might be that one reason God has some restrictions over how his church is to function is to remind us that this church belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ,” Stone said.
Quoting a tweet from Beth Moore, in which the former Southern Baptist indicated that the SBC has not sufficiently wrestled with the “tension” between the role women had in Jesus’ ministry and the words of Paul, Stone said, “There is no tension between the teachings of Jesus Christ and the God-inspired writings of the Apostle Paul.”
Stone on ‘Emotional Manipulation,’ Sexual Abuse in the SBC
Toward the end of his sermon, Stone briefly referenced the SBC’s handling of its sexual abuse crisis—something on which he intends to alter the denomination’s course if elected president. He vocally opposed the sexual abuse reforms that were overwhelmingly adopted by SBC delegates, called messengers, at the 2022 annual meeting.
“If you want chaos and confusion in a home, in a church, or in a convention of churches, let it be led out of emotional manipulation,” Stone said. “In the absence of God-called men, who will simply stand up and say, ‘I’m sorry about the tears, I’m sorry about the emotion, I’m sorry about the hurt, but none of that has anything to do with what God has told us to do or not to do.’”
He continued, “There is in fact a growing mantra in the evangelical world, including in our own denomination, that abuse—I’m talking about physical, sexual abuse—is directly tied to male leadership in the church.”
“The notion that a group of God-called, Spirit-filled, Bible-based, church-approved men cannot get alone with God and get a word for God’s people is a lie as old as the Garden of Eden,” Stone said. “It’s an attack on God’s divine order, and it’s as woke as a rooster crowing at 5:30 in the morning.”
Stone will face off against incumbent SBC president Bart Barber in the election at the denomination’s annual meeting on Tuesday.
